


Tomorrow

by wolfish_willow



Category: Happy Death Day (Movies)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Sharing a Bed, a smidge of, but the sequel doesn't happen here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:01:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24908035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfish_willow/pseuds/wolfish_willow
Summary: Tree wakes up and it's Tuesday.
Relationships: Carter Davis/Theresa "Tree" Gelbman
Comments: 10
Kudos: 71





	Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> I loved this movie when I first saw it. When I really love things, I re-watch them a lot. My most recent re-watch gave me the urge to write some kind of fic, which led to my Carter ficlet, and now to this. I wrote this in a couple hours, really hope it makes sense.
> 
> Enjoy!

Tree wakes up and it's Tuesday. Then Wednesday, and Thursday. The week continues to move forward and she moves with it. Everything is different now; she's different now. She's sure her sorority sisters, the ones that actually care about their housemates, think it's because of Lori. They're not even wrong. Near death experiences make people take a deeper look at themselves, or so Tree thinks she's heard before. Being killed multiple times, over and over and over, well. 

She told Carter days ago, on a Monday that never happened, that reliving the same day again and again makes you see what kind of person you really are. She hasn't been a very good one, but she wants to change that. Knows now that she has it in her _to_ change that.

It takes her a couple days to remember that she has to redo some of the things she'd done that good Monday. The one that was supposed to be the final one. On Thursday, Tree drops Gregory's class. This time she doesn't bother confronting him, already knows how he looks, how he acts when she does. He won't remember, but she still carries the satisfaction from that moment with her. One step closer to being a better person. It's not much, but it's something.

The weekend after everything—it's four days later but feels like weeks, a month, how many Mondays did she live through? When did she stop keeping count?—Tree meets with her dad. They missed her birthday, but that's okay, too. He doesn't know it, but they've had this conversation before and it will only be easier the second time around. She lets him hold her too tight, needing to know for himself that she's okay because a phone call isn't enough reassurance when he hears that her roommate tried to kill her on her birthday. When he pulls away, she feels like she knows what he's thinking. Another reason to dread her birthday, another thing to take away from what used to be a happy—the happiest—day. 

"It's okay," she assures him, eyes watery but smiling. "I'm okay."

He smiles back, pulls her in for another hug that lasts even longer than the first one and then they have that second, first talk. It feels good, maybe better than the first time around. He doesn't let go of her hand the whole time. When it's time for her to head back to school, she feels light and knows they're going to be okay. It might take some work, but they're willing to do that work if it means getting back to a place where they can both be happy. It will never be the same as it was, but that's okay.

Tree knows now that change is good when it's for the right reasons.

Her room is liveable again by the time she gets back on Sunday and she's looking forward to sleeping in her own bed again right up until the moment when she goes to lie down. What if, she thinks. What if she falls asleep and wakes up and it's Monday, but not tomorrow? Not the right Monday. The one that lasted forever. What if it isn't over? What if she starts the whole week again? 

She calls Carter because he knows. He doesn't _know_ , doesn't remember so much, but he believes her and that's enough. For now, it's enough. They're going to be great together, she knows it. She's only known him a week, but it's been so much longer than that. They had days where they barely spoke, but others, so many others when he helped her. When he only knew her as a person stuck in a loop or not even that, just the girl he saved from more humiliation at a party that feels even more like a dream than her birthday does. But he always tried to help.

Still helps now, offering to let her stay in his dorm again. She can't deny that she wants to, kind of misses the familiarity of his room, his bed. But she's not sure she can wake up in that dorm on a Monday morning and not have a breakdown so she invites Carter to her's instead. It's against every rule in the house but she doesn't care. They won't get caught and even if they do, she'll deal with it. She doesn't need the fake friendships, the passive aggressive clothes stealing, the name calling. It worked for her, before. When she was trying to cut off real emotions, keeping herself distant from anything too close, too real. To keep herself from getting hurt.

She doesn't want to be that person anymore. Tree wants to get close, she wants to feel all of it. Even the scary stuff, even the stuff that could hurt her in the future.

So she invites Carter over.

"Hey," she whispers when she sees him coming up the steps. He looks nervous, glancing around, but when his eyes land on her he smiles. His nose scrunches a little with the movement. Tree loves his smile, loves the way his whole face moves with it, loves that he smiles with everything. Her own smiles are a defense, armor, but his. His are genuine, without guile. They just are. He's happy so he smiles and it sends warmth through her that she's the one he's smiling for right now.

"Hey," he whispers back, slowing when he's in front of her. He shifts, still smiling but clearly unsure what to do next, what's okay. She grins, hopes it looks real because it feels real, and pulls him closer until he has to turn his head down to look at her. Looking up at him in the dim light outside, she sees all of the Carters she's met in him. His face is warm in her hands when she places them on his cheeks. His lips are warm, too, when they touch hers. She doesn't care if they get caught before they even make it in the door, not when she gets to kiss him on a Sunday.

"Hi," he says when they pull back. She's tempted to lean into him, to start again, but she's so tired and her head is starting to ache where it was hit with a baseball bat—or maybe it's where she was stabbed?—and her bed is calling to her. 

"Come on," she says, unable to resist kissing him one more time before she pulls away. She tugs him by his shirt first to get him moving. They haven't made it to the door before she links their hands together instead, sharing a silly grin with him as they sneak into the house.

It takes everything in her not to giggle on their way up the stairs. She's so tired and worried about tomorrow and whether it will _be_ tomorrow and her stomach twinges, phantom pains throbbing in time with the ache in her head, but she's happy and relieved, too. Because Carter is here and he doesn't know, can't know, not really. But she feels safe with him. The safest. Knows that even if she wakes up and it's not tomorrow, at least he'll have been with her when she fell asleep and he'll be there when she wakes up.

Miraculously they make it to her room without anyone catching them. She's not sure she believes it, but if someone saw they apparently aren't going to make a big deal out of it tonight. They'll worry about tomorrow if it comes.

"Are you okay?" he asks when the door is shut behind them. She tilts her head to look up at him, squeezing his hand.

"What do you mean?"

He shifts, gets that look on his face he always has when he's uncomfortable. She doesn't think it's the handholding or the kissing. Maybe sneaking him in here was too much, too fast? It's been longer for her, she knows more about him that he's aware of. He shared things with her on those Mondays that never happened, but not on this one. Not on the Monday that eventually became Tuesday. This is all new to him. Maybe she shouldn't have asked him to come here, she could have handled staying in his dorm another night.

"You keep rubbing your head."

Or maybe it's none of the above.

"Oh," she says, realizing as she does so that her free hand is rubbing circles on the side of her face. "I'm okay."

Carter looks at her, stares hard where she still hasn't stopped rubbing and she thinks she can see the moment when he puts the pieces together. His face goes soft—she didn't realize he could look any softer but he does—and he moves his free hand to cover hers. She closes her eyes, leaning into the touch. His hand feels even warmer than his face had beneath hers. The heat seeps into her skin and she lets her hand fall away so she can lean into his. 

His thumb caresses—there is no other word for it, the touch is so achingly tender and intimate—the skin between the corner of her eye and along her temple. Some of the pain melts away. Not all of it, but most until it's bearable. She hadn't realized how bad it was until it's mostly gone.

"You're magic," she mumbles, suddenly even more achingly tired. Her stomach is even throbbing a little less. 

"What?" he laughs. His breath tickles her face and she smiles, opening her eyes to look at him again. 

"Thank you," she says and watches with delight the way he scrunches his face again. He looks not embarrassed or uncomfortable but something. Bashful is the word, she thinks. He looks bashful, and like he isn't quite sure what she's thanking him for. "You always help."

His eyebrows crinkle. He's still confused, but that's okay. They have time now, tomorrows that won't be wiped away between one blink and the next. One day he's going to understand what she means. Because even before he returned her bracelet, before he came up with a plan to find her murderer, before he followed her to the hospital and tried to stop Tombs. Before all of that, he took her back to his dorm room so that she wouldn't get hurt because she was too drunk to remember which way was up, let alone be able to get back to her house safely. 

"I'm tired," she says instead of any of the other thoughts in her head. "Stay with me?"

He smiles again, stilling his thumb but not taking his hand from her head just yet. "That's kind of the whole reason I'm here, right?"

"Right," she agrees with a nod. Even that isn't enough to move him. He stares down at her some more; she stares back up at him. Eventually he does move his hand, but it's to curl his fingers so that the backs of his knuckles rest against her cheek. Words want to slip out but she swallows them down, keeps them inside because it's only been a week. Carter needs time to get to know her, to find out how he feels about her. She knows how she feels, knows that it isn't going to change, and that's enough. Assuming there's a tomorrow, assuming it's the right one, she has time. She doesn't mind waiting.

"Bed?" he whispers. When she nods, he pulls away. Her face feels a little cold without him there, but their other hands are still linked. He uses those joined hands to pull her onto the bed with him. 

They have to let go eventually. It isn't a loss; not when she rolls onto her back and pulls him on top of her and he goes easily. His weight grounds her, keeps her mind focused on him and them and not tomorrow. He's still smiling, but it's softer now. Tree kisses him again, keeps it light because they're tired, but unable to resist the urge entirely.

Carter returns the kisses just as easily as he'd rolled on top of her. He leans over, maneuvers them until they're more on their sides. She thought she would miss feeling him on top of her, and she does, but he's still there. Still a solid line of heat, a body lined up against hers. His arms wrap around her and when they stop kissing, he pulls her into his chest. She curls into him, grabs his shirt in one of her hands. 

"Sweet dreams," he whispers. She smiles and closes her eyes and falls asleep.

*

When she wakes up, the bells ring outside but she's still in her room and Carter is still wrapped around her. It's Monday, but it's not _that_ Monday.

Tree curls back into Carter's chest and breathes him in, already looking forward to whatever this week will bring.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading. If you liked it, please consider leaving a comment. They make me smile! (kudos are also appreciated :D)


End file.
